Medical aspects of the first recorded Celtic invasion of Ulster (the Táin).

THE oldest non-ecclesiastical manuscript in Ireland is the Lebor na hUidre (lour na heera) or Book of the Dun Cow. It contains part of the Thin Bo Cuailnge (Tawn Bo Kool-nje) or Cattle Raid of Cooley which describes the invasion of Ulster by the combined forces of the three other provinces to capture the Brown Bull of Cooley. The Cooley peninsula is the tongue of land between Carlingford Lough and Dundalk Bay. Two thousand years ago, when the invasion occurred, Ulster extended southwards to the river Boyne so that the Cooley Peninsula was well within Ulster territory. THE TEXTS The Book of the Dun Cow (now in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin) was compiled prior to 1106 from manuscripts whose language dates them at about the sixth century and Dr. Ian Adamson (1974), a Fellow of this Society, suggests that the story was first committed to writing in the monastery at Bangor, Co. Down. A more complete version of the story is included in The Book of Leinster (now in Trinity College, Dublin) which was also compiled in the early twelfth century. The monk who wrote it did not think highly of the contents and added his own comments at the end: "But I who have written this story, or rather this fable, give no credence to the various incidents related in it. For some things in it are the deceptions of demons, others poetic figments, some are probable; others improbable; while still others are intended for the delectation of foolish men" (O'Rahilly, 1967). I think that we will find that he was writing more truth than he suspected and that through his writings we can gain a view, admittedly a lay-man's view, of medical practice in Ireland 2,000 years ago.